Three cheers for porcine champions, Jamie Oliver, Joanna Lumley, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tracy Ward (aka the Marchioness of Worcester) who have admirably used their high profiles to raise awareness of the pig industry in a number of television programmes aired this month.

Pigs generally suffer from a bad press and arguably are the most mistreated of all farm animals, something that was confirmed late one night when I slipped into an industrial pig factory in Berkshire along with the animal welfare charity VIVA, who were filming undercover footage.

Despite an unwarranted reputation for gluttony and dirtiness, pigs are intelligent, clean and curious animals, which makes it so horrifying that half of all pork is reared intensively, often in barbaric conditions. But however bad conditions are in the UK, pigs are treated even worse abroad.

Entering the farm was a terrifying experience. Deafened by the thundering roar of traffic, the three of us, including Ian the cameraman and Hugo a barrister friend I’d dragged along, walked 2 miles across arid prairie fields studded with electricity pylons and mobile phone masks until an enormous dank looking grey shed hoved into view. 

This farm has been the subject of several break-ins by animal rights activists, being notorious for its terrible animal welfare record, and security was tight. Surrounded by sky-high Colditz barbed wire and concrete walls I despaired of actually being able to get in and film our footage. But fortunately Ian made for a weak spot in the farm’s armoury. 

As we clambered over steep walls and slithered under agonising spiky barbed wire, for the first time I began to feel really frightened.  Visions of a Tony Martin type vigilante farmer let loose with a sawn off shotgun swarmed through my mind. 

Having successfully negotiated wire and walls, blinded by savage spotlights, we found ourselves face to face with a bleak grey shed that stretched for miles. Eerily silent and still, but emitting a cloying stench that knocked me sideways, we took deep breaths and opened an unsecured door. 

Once inside we were assaulted by an even worse stench and peering through the darkness down an endless concrete corridor, it was difficult to see anything.  When Ian switched on his flashlight an enormous rat scampered over our feet and disappeared.

As our eyes accustomed themselves to the gloom we began to make out rows upon rows of bleak concrete cells, each containing about 20 pigs crammed together with barely any room to move. Government guidelines recommend straw bedding but these pigs had none. As we edged our way down this death row hundreds of bright eyes followed our progress.

Several pigs were confined in solitary cells. On a black board next to each of these, the words, `CULL’ had been scrawled.  Ian explained that these are diseased or lame sows. Worn down with endless litters they are destined to be slaughtered, ending up in cheap pies and dog food.

Worse was to come. As we opened the door to the next shed we were hit in the face with an intense cloying humidity and the stink of hundreds of pigs. It was like a Hieronymus Bosch painting brought to life.  Except this was not the 13th century but the 21st.

This fetid hellish place was home to hundreds of sows imprisoned in farrowing crates.  Supporters of this barbaric practice argue that this is for the good of the sow as it stops them squashing their young.  In reality this is purely about economics.  In order to keep costs down there are not enough staff to supervise the sows giving birth, which is when the piglets are most vulnerable, hence the need to resort to these tiny prisons.

Many sows had painful weeping sores from by rubbing themselves against their metal bars.  All of them were exhibiting stereotypic behaviour, moving their heads backwards and forwards and desperately knawing on their bars. It was like a medieval torture chamber, a Spanish Inquisition designed for animals.

Fleeing the filthy shed, armed with our damning video footage and numb with shock, we made our way back to the car.

For however badly British pigs may be treated, animals outside the UK are treated even worse.

Joanna Lumley writes in the independent

`Compassion in World Farming recently filmed in 60 pig farms across Europe. When you see the results – pigs crowded together in barren concrete pens, with no straw bedding and not even the legally required level of manipulable material, breeding sows still being kept in narrow metal-barred sow stalls, unable to turn round throughout their four-month pregnancies, widespread tail-docking and castration of piglets – you are tempted to despair.’

The good news is that it’s we the consumer who can make a change by voting with our shopping baskets.  Joanna continues;

`We must resolutely only purchase higher welfare pork and bacon. If the label doesn't say that the meat is organic, free range, outdoor bred and outdoor reared, or Freedom Food, then avoid it. When we are eating out, we must remember to ask the restaurant if their pork has a welfare label.’

Best of all, why not give up pork for good?!